Download or read book Religion and the Cultural Crisis in India and the West written by Abraham Adappur and published by . This book was released on 2000 with total page 520 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Crisis of Secularism in India written by Anuradha Dingwaney Needham and published by Duke University Press. This book was released on 2007-01-18 with total page 427 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: While secularism has been integral to India’s democracy for more than fifty years, its uses and limits are now being debated anew. Signs of a crisis in the relations between state, society, and religion include the violence directed against Muslims in Gujarat in 2002 and the precarious situation of India’s minority religious groups more generally; the existence of personal laws that vary by religious community; the affiliation of political parties with fundamentalist religious organizations; and the rallying of a significant proportion of the diasporic Hindu community behind a resurgent nationalist Hinduism. There is a broad consensus that a crisis of secularism exists, but whether the state can resolve conflicts and ease tensions or is itself part of the problem is a matter of vigorous political and intellectual debate. In this timely, nuanced collection, twenty leading Indian cultural theorists assess the contradictory ideals, policies, and practices of secularism in India. Scholars of history, anthropology, religion, politics, law, philosophy, and media studies take on a broad range of concerns. Some consider the history of secularism in India; others explore theoretical issues such as the relationship between secularism and democracy or the shortcomings of the categories “majority” and “minority.” Contributors examine how the debates about secularism play out in schools, the media, and the popular cinema. And they address two of the most politically charged sites of crisis: personal law and the right to practice and encourage religious conversion. Together the essays inject insightful analysis into the fraught controversy about the shortcomings and uncertain future of secularism in the world today. Contributors. Flavia Agnes, Upendra Baxi, Shyam Benegal, Akeel Bilgrami, Partha Chatterjee, V. Geetha, Sunil Khilnani, Nivedita Menon, Ashis Nandy, Anuradha Dingwaney Needham, Gyanendra Pandey, Gyan Prakash, Arvind Rajagopal, Paula Richman, Sumit Sarkar, Dwaipayan Sen, Rajeswari Sunder Rajan, Shabnum Tejani, Romila Thapar, Ravi S. Vasudevan, Gauri Viswanathan
Download or read book Religion and Public Culture written by Keith E. Yandell Keith E. Yandell and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-11-19 with total page 284 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The last two centuries have witnessed profound changes in the nature of public consciousness. Nowhere has this been more true than in India, especially in relation to changing cultures of public life and religious tradition in South India. Essays in this collection attempt to explore the intricacies of what is perhaps the single most complex socio-religious environment in the world. The essays consider the evolution of the notion of Hinduism as a distinct and singular separate religion; the relationship between this kind of formulation and various European or western influences in India; and differences which the formation of this idea and its acceptance have made upon wider public consciousness. Each essay also considers certain general issues - such as the passing along of religious authority from one generation to the next, and the rise of disputes over matters both ideological (or doctrinal) and institutional, disputes that are fundamental to the traditions concerned and yet have unmistakable cross-cultural references.
Download or read book Religious Conversion written by Sarah Claerhout and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2022-05-06 with total page 186 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book re-examines the issue of religious conversion, which has been a site of conflict in India for several centuries. It discusses wide-ranging themes such as conversion, education, and reform in colonial India; the process and practices of conversion in Christian Europe; Gandhi, conversion, and the equality of religions; perspectives from Hindu nationalism, secularism, and religious minorities; religious freedom and the limits of propagating religion; and conversion in constitutional law, commissions, and courts, to chart new directions for research on religion, tradition, and conversion. Tracing developments from the 19th-century colonial era to contemporary times, the book analyses cultural background frameworks and the origins of religious conversion and its conceptualisation in Western Christianity. It further delves into how Indian culture and its traditions have shaped responses to conversion. Part of the Critical Humanities Across Cultures series, this book will be useful to scholars and researchers of critical humanities, religion, cultural studies, sociology of religion, comparative religion, philosophy, anthropology, theology, Indology, history, politics, postcolonial studies, critical theory, and South Asian studies.
Download or read book The Religious Culture of India written by Friedhelm Hardy and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 1994-07-28 with total page 627 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This study conducts a lively and innovative exploration of the traditional Indian religions and cultures that have both fascinated and puzzled the West for centuries. The author uses a great variety of sources, and listens not only to what the learned philosopher or theologian in the classical Sanskrit texts has to say, but also to what folk cults express in stories, myths, and poetry. By focusing on the three universal human drives of power, love and wisdom, Hardy offers a colorful picture of the huge diversity that is Indian religion.
Download or read book Hinduism and Secularism written by Dr. R. S. Misra and published by Motilal Banarsidass Publishe. This book was released on 1996 with total page 218 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Spirituality And Indian Culture written by M. M. Agrawal and published by Concept Publishing Company. This book was released on 2005 with total page 144 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Religious Cultures in Early Modern India written by Rosalind O'Hanlon and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2014-01-02 with total page 293 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Religious authority and political power have existed in complex relationships throughout India’s history. The centuries of the ‘early modern’ in South Asia saw particularly dynamic developments in this relationship. Regional as well as imperial states of the period expanded their religious patronage, while new sectarian centres of doctrinal and spiritual authority emerged beyond the confines of the state. Royal and merchant patronage stimulated the growth of new classes of mobile intellectuals deeply committed to the reappraisal of many aspects of religious law and doctrine. Supra-regional institutions and networks of many other kinds - sect-based religious maths, pilgrimage centres and their guardians, sants and sufi orders - flourished, offering greater mobility to wider communities of the pious. This was also a period of growing vigour in the development of vernacular religious literatures of different kinds, and often of new genres blending elements of older devotional, juridical and historical literatures. Oral and manuscript literatures too gained more rapid circulation, although the meaning and canonical status of texts frequently changed as they circulated more widely and reached larger lay audiences. Through explorations of these developments, the essays in this collection make a distinctive contribution to a critical formative period in the making of India’s modern religious cultures. This book was published as a special issue of South Asian History and Culture.
Download or read book Crisis and Contention in Indian Society written by T K Oommen and published by SAGE. This book was released on 2005-07-21 with total page 250 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Indian society is often described as one with ‘unity in diversity’ and as a composite culture. Since independence, India has also been termed ‘democratic’ and ‘secular’. However, the discernible cracks that have appeared in recent years in these conceptualisations have led to contentious debates about the very nature of Indian society. Focusing on different facets of this exacerbating crisis, this book analyses the various issues confronting India’s society and polity today which can assume crisis proportions if not tackled judiciously and expeditiously.
Download or read book Do All Roads Lead to Jerusalem written by S. N. Balagangadhara and published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. This book was released on 2015-02-27 with total page 300 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Do All Roads Lead to Jerusalem? traces the history of western encounters with other cultures on two occasions: the 'pagans' of Greece and Rome and the 'heathens' in India. The West has produced many descriptions of other cultures. A close examination of these descriptions reveals that these descriptions tell us more about western culture than about the cultures the West has attempted to describe. This over-arching theme is developed by examining one element in western culture, viz., religion. This book argues that religion is not a cultural universal and the belief that all cultures have religion is an assumption on the part of all scholars of religion. The reason for this is that western culture has been shaped by religion so that members of this culture are conceptually compelled to describe other cultures from within the framework of religion. From Biblical scholarship to the Enlightenment, from the Reformation to the Romantics, from believers to atheists, the cognitive scheme is the same - one that has been set in place by the experiential framework of Christianity. It is through this framework that all other cultures have been studied so far. Is it any wonder that members of such a culture saw religion wherever they went? By means of methodical arguments and lucid explanations this book demonstrates that religion is not a cultural universal and explains why it is believed to be so. Scholars in the field of religious and cultural studies will find this work illuminating, original, and deeply compelling.
Download or read book The Churches Confronting the Cultural Crisis in India and the West written by Abraham Adappur and published by . This book was released on 1981 with total page 966 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Socio economic Change and the Religious Factor in India written by National Institute of Community Development and published by New Delhi : Affiliated East-West Press ; New York : Van Nostrand Reinhold Company. This book was released on 1969 with total page 168 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Makers of Modern Indian Religion in the Late Nineteenth Century written by Torkel Brekke and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2002-12-05 with total page 190 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is a book about religious transformation in South Asia in the nineteenth century. On the one hand, a fundamental conceptual transformation in the world of religion among people who were exposed to English language and culture took place. This transformation crystallized religious communities with sharp boundaries and distinct histories. On the other hand, the emerging feeling of religious-communal identity motivated religious and lay leaders to work in the interest of thecommunity. This book is about both of these interrelated developments: the conceptual change and the application of the new ideas to political discourse; the construction and the politics of religious identity.
Download or read book India s Problem Krishna or Christ written by John P. Jones and published by DigiCat. This book was released on 2022-06-13 with total page 321 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: John P. Jones' "India's Problem, Krishna or Christ" is an interesting look at the multiculturalism of India during the late 18th and early 19th centuries. At a time when English colonialism aimed to impart Christianity on the people of India, Hinduism faced the threat of disappearing. When many Indians might have felt torn between which faith to follow, Jones describes such a conflict that is important to read for a better understanding of this tense time in history.
Download or read book Rethinking Western India written by Dušan Dèak and published by . This book was released on 2014 with total page 291 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Papers presented at the 13th International Conference on Maharashtra: Culture and Society, held in Bratislava, Slovakia in June 2010.
Download or read book Rethinking Religion in India written by Esther Bloch and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2009-12-24 with total page 209 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Critically assesses recent debates about the colonial construction of Hinduism. Written by experts in their field, the chapters present historical and empirical arguments as well as theoretical reflections on the topic, offering new insights into the nature of the construction of religion in India.
Download or read book Religion and Indian Society written by C. N. Venugopal and published by Gyan Publishing House. This book was released on 1998 with total page 172 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Religion and Indian Society: A Sociological Perspective, is a collection of twelve essays written by Prof. Venugopal on different facets of religion in Indian society. Recent developments in Indian society such as the march of secularism, growth in science and technology and modernization of economic and political spheres have not marginalized the religion. There are several socio-cultural problems which need to be tackled effectively by our religions and spirituality only. Hence, the religions in India such as Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, Islam, Christianity, Sikhism and Zoroastrianism have provided not only an integral frame work for large groups of people but also offered solutions to the vexation of mind and spirit. Besides the religious impulse has stimulated not only routine activities but also special pursuits. The religious impulse has been predominant. Even today there are many prominent personalities in the country who have kept alive the religious inheritance. These essays which deal with the role of charisma in religious life, Bhakti reform, conceptualization of Hinduism and Pluralism, social stratification pioneers in Indian society, etc., are sure to provide new insights into the relationship between religions and society. These essays are concise, clearly written and stimulate discussion. In sum, the book presents an optimistic outlook which regards religion (in spite of its contemporary aberration ) as a vital force for the survival of the Indian society. About The Author: - Prof. C.N. Venugopal, has been teaching sociology since 1971 at the Centre for the Study of Social Systems, JNU, New Delhi. His qualifications include M. A. with distinction (University of Mysore) and Ph. D (JNU). He has not only been a distinguished teacher but has also successfully guided a number of students writing their M. Phil dissertations and Ph. D theses. His previous publications include Ideology and Society in India: Sociological Essays and Sociology for Law Students.
